We decided on a Land Rover Defender for this trip some 3
years ago. The only real alternatives considered were the Toyota Land
Cruiser, which John had owned in Saudi Arabia, and a Toyota Hilux pickup
with canopy which we had rented previously for trips to Namibia and Botswana.
Overall we decided that the Land Rover Defender was more rugged, simpler
and more easily maintained in Africa.

We visited Nene Overland near Peterborough in December
2007, just to have a look at what was available and came away having bought a
vehicle! What we purchased was something rather special.

Choice of engine was one of the primary
considerations. Diesel was essential, but there have been several changes
of diesel engine fitted to the Defender over the years. One of the early
ones was the 300 Tdi which was a "low tech" non-computerised turbo diesel.
This was superseded by the Td5 under BMW ownership, a much more sophisticated,
and more complicated, turbo diesel and later, under Ford ownership, by the Puma
engine. We soon decided that we wanted the 300 Tdi engine, but the problem was
that this engine was discontinued on European specification Defenders in 1998 so
those available in 2007 were normally very high mileage. However, the 300
Tdi continued to be fitted to "Rest of the World" spec vehicles much later than
this. We were lucky, in that Nene Overland had a batch of these vehicles
which had been built in 2003 and delivered for a contract in the Middle
East, but never used. They had sat in a shipping container in Kuwait
for nearly 4 years and had then been purchased by Nene and imported
back to the UK. They were, in fact, new and unused vehicles 4 years old! They
were LHD but had only 300 km on the clock and still had the protective plastic
on the seats! We bought one - a Defender 110 County Station Wagon in white
- and called her Lavinia, in memory of my Aunt who had recently died at the age
of 101, nearly 102.

Kevin Mackman at Nene Overland then took charge of
equipping Lavinia for an extensive overland trip. Underneath, we fitted
raised suspension, stiffer rear springs, rock-slider bars, protection for the
steering rods and for both differentials, and a 120 litre fuel tank. At the
front, a massive Australian ARB "bull bar", an electric winch and twin driving
lamps. All the wheels were replaced by alloy rims and we fitted "All Terrain"
tyres. At the rear, a spare wheel carrier on the rear door and additional
lighting, On top, a South African Hannibal alloy roof rack with roof-top tent,
an alloy folding table secured under the roof-rack and a second spare
wheel. On the port side we fitted a roll-away Hannibal sun awning. We
had security grids placed on all the rear and side-rear windows and between the
rear seats and the load chamber. Inside we removed one rear seat and
fitted a National Lunar fridge in its place. We added a "cubby box" between the
front seats and installed a 500 watt inverter and an air compressor. We
increased battery capacity by fitting a second battery and a National Lunar
battery management system.

In 2008 we took her to Bosnia for a month and had gave
her extensive off-road testing which far surpassed our expectations.
Early this year (2010) we decided to drive to South Africa and to import the
Defender permanently into RSA. As John had obtained South African
permanent residence, he qualified to import one vehicle duty-free, but in
pursuing the paper trail for approval and for the export licence, it came to
light that South Africa does not now permit the importation of LHD vehicles
built after 2000. This was a major blow but it appeared that there was no
way round this regulation so we "bit the bullet" and forked out the cost of
conversion from LHD to RHD, which was very ably performed by Nene Overland. The
final test, two weeks ago, was to take her into the hills of North Wales with
Protrax for a gruelling "Wild Wales Safari", which demonstrated the amazing
capability of these vehicles.